Alliance for Home Ownership Preservation

An outline of the program

By Francis G. Slay

2 min read

Posted on 03.11.08

2 min read

Posted on 03.11.08

Here are some of the details of the new St. Louis Alliance for Home Ownership Preservation:

At my request and with the approval of the Estimate Board, the City’s Affordable Housing Commission and the City will set aside $500,000 to help families keep their homes. The money will be used for two primary purposes.

The City will work with our partner agencies to provide financial counseling to help families who can afford their homes to get their loans restructured or refinanced. If the situation is hopeless, the counselors may help families with the transition to rental housing.

In addition, through our partner agencies, we will provide direct mortgage assistance in cases the agencies believe a family would lose their home without it. The assistance will be limited to principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and lender fees. The maximum assistance will be $1,500. Families will only be eligible for the one-time grants if we are convinced it will make a difference and help them through a temporary crisis. We will not authorize mortgage assistance if we think it will only delay the inevitable.

It is our hope that the program can help 1,000 families.

To connect with the program, we want people to use the national hotline number 888-995-HOPE. That number will direct St. Louisans to local agencies.

The City is taking a leadership role to reduce the damage caused by this national crisis. But, it is my strong hope that Congress will step in and do its part to help families, protect neighborhoods, and boost the national economy.